Lessons to learn from Northampton

Thursday

Sep 23, 2010 at 11:43 AM

Bumpkin family vacations are normally on the Cape or in New Hampshire. I've been wanting to get out to western Mass. to see what this area has to offer. Despite being a native Bay Stater, the area west of Rte. 495 is a complete mystery to me. If this was 500 years ago, my map of Massachusetts would have a western area that was blank and peppered with the occasional sea monster or dragon. Now part of that white space has been filled in — the area of the Connecticut River Valley around Northampton. I was extremely impressed and came home wishing that Middleboro would emulate some of the things I saw.

Bumpkin family vacations are normally on the Cape or in New Hampshire. I've been wanting to get out to western Mass. to see what this area has to offer. Despite being a native Bay Stater, the area west of Rte. 495 is a complete mystery to me. If this was 500 years ago, my map of Massachusetts would have a western area that was blank and peppered with the occasional sea monster or dragon. Now part of that white space has been filled in — the area of the Connecticut River Valley around Northampton. I was extremely impressed and came home wishing that Middleboro would emulate some of the things I saw.

CPA

The first thing that struck me when we drove into downtown was the number of "Your CPA dollars at work" signs. I'm a big proponent of the Community Preservation Act — it will be on the ballot this November and I urge you to research it and vote in favor of it. It provides dedicated money for preserving open space, historic assets, and creation of recreational facilities and community housing. This money would be matched at some level by the state and controlled by town meeting. Northampton has preserved open space, repaired church roofs, built Habitat for Humanity housing, built sports fields, preserved historic records, built bicycle trails, and so much more. Please check out their CPA web site - http://bit.ly/azZGCU.

It's never easy to set money aside as we lurch from one budget deficit to the next. Preservation of our assets is our responsibility to future generations - and CPA is a tool that will help us do that.

Trails, trails, trails

The next thing that struck me about the Northampton area were the paved trails built on old rail lines. They are heavily used by bikers, walkers, runners and rollerbladers. Near our cottage the trail ran four miles through woods and towns right into downtown Northampton. About a mile outside of town it connected to another trail - the Norwottuck Rail Trail. Near the beginning is a spectacular quarter mile stretch that runs over the Connecticut River. Again, this is a rail trail — no cars — about as wide as a driveway. It runs for 11 miles through scenic farmland to Hadley and Amherst. Another trail from downtown runs toward Easthampton and is under active construction. It was really these bike trails that sold me on the area. Riding along I could see which people were natives and which were tourists. The natives had this healthy glow and contented smile. I could tell that they were thinking, "Man it's so awesome living here." The tourists like me, on the other hand, all had this sort of sickly pasty pallor and knew that their stay in paradise was short and soon they would be back home riding their bikes past discarded fast food wrappers and dodging trucks on roads that weren't built with bikers or walkers in mind.

Imagine a paved trail that ran along the Nemasket River, through Pratt farm, and maybe even to Plymouth or Bridgewater. Towns like Northampton didn't just imagine these sorts of things — they did them.

Shops and more

The area has a lot of small shops and doesn't have a Dunkin Donuts, McDonald's, and Wal-Mart on every corner. Big stores and chain stores exist — just in moderation. The downtown is absolutely thriving and is loaded with restaurants, theaters, cafes, clothing stores, and shops of every description. Anchored by five large colleges, the area has an educated, dynamic, and diverse population.

The next time a downtown killer department store or chain store wants to come here and get a huge tax break from us, maybe we should consider the actual benefit to our budget and the effect on our existing local businesses.

The Sustainability Plan

After vacation, I started reading up on the area to see what sort of things make it so remarkable. Every city and town in the state is required to create a master plan to guide future development and policy. I liked the sentiment behind Northampton's version called the Sustainable Northampton Plan: It is "a comprehensive plan that seeks to ensure the city can continue to meet its current and ongoing environmental, social and economic needs without compromising the future for succeeding generations. .... We have the option of letting momentum and inertia shape our future, resting on our laurels and our numerous "Best Of" rankings. We also have the option of critically examining what works about Northampton and what could be improved, consciously shaping a future that takes into account the reality of a world of resources — energy resources, environmental resources, financial resources — under growing strain."

I'm not commenting on Middleboro's master plan because I didn't get a copy of it in time for this column. I like the mindset in the Northampton plan and the apparent consistency they have shown in sticking with the principals in it. I'll close by saying that we had a great vacation and highly recommend the area. I'll definitely be visiting there again.

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.